Supreme Court Ruling: Does CBN Learn Anything? -By Ibrahim Mustapha Pambegua

After hesitation or defy to obey Supreme Court’s ruling to re-issue or recirculate old 500 and 1000 currencies as legal tender until 31 December this year, the Apex bank has finally directed commercial banks to start accepting and disbursing  old notes forthwith. This directive has become a respite to angry, frustrating and suffering Nigerians who have bored the brunt of cash scarcity that hit the country since the introduction of cash swap policy. It is reported that, in the last three months, the financial payment system has incurred huge lost to the tune of trillions. The naira redesign policy has worsened the living condition of Nigerians. Cash scarcity is horrible as people have to struggle to get money which is not available to meet up with their demands.  In the course of getting what they legitimately earned and saved, many people have lost their precious lives. Two sad incidences that happened stated the cruel consequences of the cashless policy. One, a sad story of pregnant women from Kano who was admitted in hospital but could not survive due to cash crunch. The hospital refused to accept transfer and the innocent patient had to succumb to cool hands of death. What a Sad! Another tragedy occurred in Lagos recently when a journalist trekked to office but slumped and death. There are many unreported cases of families sleeping with hunger as they could not access their cash.

 The policy which government said would fight inflation, corruption and votes buying has outlived its usefulness. Instead of addressing the stated challenges, it inflicted more harm to Nigerians. The online payment platforms such as: banks and other money agents experienced network failure. The pressure on our poorly 3G network has seriously affected good service delivery. The policy has also failed to stop votes buying. Our clever politicians have devised other ways to cheaply buy votes. They shared sphaggetti, noodles and other food items to electorates in return of their votes. While the policy is good and will have positive effects in the long run, the rush with which the Central Bank implemented it has robbed its benefits. One must have expected the Apex bank to borrow a leaf from UK and other countries with similar success story of currency redesign. In UK, the new currency which carries the picture of King Charles 11 will coexist with the old ones until they are being morphed out completely from circulation.

With multi-dimensional poverty index report which places 33millions bellow poverty line, government must have weighed the consequences of implementing cashless policy. Nigeria has the highest number of people without banks accounts. Similarly, over 90 percent of transactions in the country are cash backed. Little wonder, when the policy debuted, many Nigerians found it extremely difficult to cope. The government must have put necessary infrastructures and upgraded our network service to 5G as obtained in develop countries in other to facilitate seamless and hitches free cashless economy. With supreme Court ruling compelling government to extend the use of old currencies, the federal government should consult widely with relevant stakeholders before adopting any policy next time.  

Ibrahim Mustapha Pambegua, Kaduna state.

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